Texas lands two universities in nation’s top 50

Members of the University of Texas at Austin Longhorn Band perform during the Fiesta Flambeau Parade Saturday April 16, 2011. (PHOTO BY EDWARD A. ORNELAS)

The U.S. News & World Report released its annual best colleges list today and Texas can claim two of the top 50 national universities — Rice University in Houston and the University of Texas at Austin.

Unsurprisingly, elite private schools took the top spots — Harvard University (tied for No. 1), Princeton University (tied for No. 1), Yale University (No. 3), Columbia University (tied for No. 4) and the University of Chicago (tied for No. 4).

Members of the University of Texas at Austin Longhorn Band perform during the Fiesta Flambeau Parade Saturday April 16, 2011. (PHOTO BY EDWARD A. ORNELAS)

U.S. News compared the universities by more than a dozen criteria including freshman retention rates, graduation rates, percentage of full-time faculty and alumni giving.

Rice University tied the University of Notre Dame in Indiana and Vanderbilt University in Tennessee for No. 17.

At No. 46, UT Austin tied Pennsylvania State University – University Park, University of Illinois – Urbana-Champaign, the University of Washington and Yeshiva University in New York.

Trinity University was ranked the top regional university in the West. U.S. News qualified regional universities as those with “a full range of undergraduate majors and master’s programs” but fewer doctoral programs.

In the same regional university ranking, St. Mary’s University tied for the No. 20 spot and Texas State University-San Marcos tied for No. 46. The University of the Incarnate Word tied for No. 58.